7 Smart Ways To Use Baking Soda On Your Deck And Patio

Compared to wooden decking, which requires extensive care and maintenance to stay clean and to look sharp, capped composite decking requires little maintenance or cleaning. Rinse with a high-pressure nozzle until the water coming from the deck runs clear to ensure a film doesn’t remain.

To maintain the beauty of your Trex® deck, a little care and cleaning goes a long way. All exterior building materials require cleaning and a Trex deck is no different. For early-generation composite products (Trex Accents®, Trex Origins®, Trex Contours®, Trex Profiles® or Trex Brasilia®), we recommend a semi-annual cleaning with a composite deck cleaner. If your deck is one of the high-performance product lines from Trex (Trex Transcend®, Trex Enhance® or Trex Select®), soap-and-water cleaning or a gentle pressure washing will do the trick. Learn how to clean and care for your composite decking by reading the information that applies to your decking product and get ready to enjoy maximum outdoor living with minimal maintenance. Even if they’ve been sealed, wood decks, especially cedar and redwood, eventually begin to dull and take on a weathered, gray appearance. Rusty streaks can also appear around screw heads or along the wood’s grain.

Remember, if you are going to use a pressure washer it should be no closer than eight inches from the surface and less than 3100 psi. You can perform a semiannual cleaning on your composite deck to preserve its longevity.

Cleaning Composite And Wood Decking

Removing Mold, Tree Sap And Mildew Stains On Composite Deck Railings

Another way of maintaining a clean composite deck is after the cleaning is complete to apply a water sealer made specifically for composite decking. Soap and water is always the recommended stain remover for composite decking. Dish soap is a great and affordable way to clean your deck. Likewise, dish detergent and water gets hard to remove stains off of composite decks. Mold, tree sap and mildew are the biggest culprits for stains on composite deck boards. These debris form a biofilm and are tough to remove.

Pressure Washing Your Composite Decking

Pressure washers are ideal for removing dirt and dust from decks but shouldn’t be used to remove stains. In order to best maintain the beauty of your composite deck, it’s important to perform a semi-annual cleaning. Decking materials are extremely susceptible to mold, mildew, stains, and general weathering. It’s important to know how to clean your deck in a way that will not damage or ruin your composite deck. This guide will teach you how to protect your investment by cleaning your deck materials in an efficient and easy manner. Oxygen bleach or powdered oxygen laundry cleaner is safe for use on wood decks and useful in removing mold or spores.

• The best part of composites is that, with the exception of food stains, you only have to clean your deck for aesthetic reasons.
• Simply scrub the solution into the decking one section at a time and rinse.
• For wood decks, not cleaning often enough can lead to more costly maintenance.
• All you need to make your natural composite deck cleaner is some soap, water, vinegar, and baking soda and a soft bristle brush to remove dirt, debris, and other grime.

Eventually, it will discolor your deck, damage the surface and exacerbate any mold/mildew issues that can occur. Avoid this costly mistake and choose a non-toxic, sodium percarbonate based cleaner. Apply your composite deck cleaner.Your deck cleaner will come with detailed, specific instructions that you should follow carefully. Keeping the pressure washer under 800 psi, wash off the cleaner by going along the grain. Maintain a distance of at least 8 to 10 inches from the surface of your deck, and make sure to keep your spray moving.

Consider, for example, the effects that traditional cleaners like sodium hypochlorite and TSP can have, releasing phosphates into natural waterways. When it comes to scouring a composite deck, the process looks quite unique from cleaning techniques for raw or wood decking. To maintain its functionality as well as its beauty, a little or minimum care can really go a long way. The first step in maintaining and cleaning your deck is that you should not use household materials that natural wood deck use in keeping it looks new. Most of the chemicals can end up damaging the composite material and you don’t want that on your deck. Remove stubborn dirt with mild soap and a soft bristled brush.

Are Pressure Washers Safe For Composite Deck Railings?

Even if it appears clean, it is important to prevent build-up of pollen/debris. Mildew stains may occur where moisture, pollens, and/or dirt are present.

How To Clean Cedar Homes And Remove Stains From Moss, Algae & Mold

It worked far better than Olympic Deck Wash, BEHR No. 62 Multi Surface Cleaner and Mildew Stain Remover or any number of the other products I purchased and tested. Courtesy of AmazonOxygen bleach products are supposed to be safer for the environment. They may not tackle stubborn mold and algae that has set into wood decks, but if used more frequently, that mildew and algae shouldn't build up quite so often.